Author: Scéal Heritage Consultancy

Scéal Heritage were delighted to be a part of Heritage Week 2020 by being a contributor to the new “Connecting with Heritage” podcast series created on behalf of Leitrim County Council. The podcast series aims to highlight much of Leitrim’s natural, built, and cultural heritage from the people who know most about it. The podcast shares stories about potato planting and traditional farming methods; an overview of ecology and conservation; discussion on what sets Leitrim’s singing and fiddle music apart from other counties, and the importance of Leitrim’s prehistoric archaeology – all from a range of experts and local people passionate about heritage.

Scéal spoke about the importance of the prehistoric archaeological landscape in Leitrim. We highlighted some of the wonderful monuments such as the passage tombs at Sheemore and Sheebeg, and the wealth of wonderful artefacts which have been uncovered in Leitrim, including the Keshcarrigan Bowl and the Annadale shield (pictured above, image copyright NMI). You can listen to the podcast through either of the links below:

https://leitrimheritage.buzzsprout.com/

Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Acheson's Mill Part Two – Connecting Through Heritage with Leitrim County Council

School Days & Growing Up in DrumcreeIn the second part of this Memory Meitheals feature, the conversation moves from mill life to school days and the everyday adventures of growing up in the Drumcree and Glebe area. Florrie Moynihan (née Rowley), Mel Rowley and Gerry Reilly recall the teachers, classrooms, neighbours and small excitements that shaped childhood in rural Leitrim.Stories of friendship, local characters and family life sit alongside Florrie’s reflections on leaving home for Dublin, offering a gentle contrast between past and present — between the grounded, close-knit world of Drumcree and the bustling city she has lived in since the 1960s.Together, these memories paint a vivid, affectionate portrait of community life, preserving voices and stories that might otherwise be lost.

1. Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Acheson's Mill Part Two 01:31:37
2. Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Acheson's Mill Part One 01:03:09
3. Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Vincie and J.J. Mulligan Part Two 01:14:04
4. Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Vincie and J.J. Mulligan Part One 01:08:14
5. Leitrim Memory Meitheals – Tish Dunleavy and Eilish O Callaghan 01:16:27

Scéal Heritage was delighted to be awarded the contract for the project role of Exhibition Researcher & Curator for compilation of an exciting new permanent exhibition on the life and works of Fr. Frank Browne at Emo Court, Co. Laois.

Scéal will be working closely with the OPW Historic Properties Team on this project, and looks forward to creating an exhibition which captures and commemorates the story of a unique and prolific photographer of the twentieth century.

Fr. Browne was one of Ireland’s greatest documentary photographers, recording thousands of images of the people and places of Ireland which today provide an important visual history of Ireland in the twentieth century. As a Jesuit priest, he spent twenty-eight years at the then Jesuit novitiate at Emo Court, a large neo-classical mansion in Co. Laois, which held his homemade photo laboratory where he processed some of the 42,000 photographs which he took throughout his life.

Fr. Browne first achieved fame for his photographs of the Titanic, which he captured while on a first class ticket from Southampton to Queenstown (Cobh) in 1912. In 1915, he became a World War I chaplain to the Irish Guards fighting in France and Southern Belgium, and used his photography skills to visually document this experience. As well as thousands of photographs taken of people, events, transport, and monuments across Ireland and Britain, he also photographed several Australian subjects during the two years he spent there in the years after the war.

Fr. Browne camera image is courtesy of Emo Court, Laois